WASHINGTON — The Justice Department and the Senate Ethics Committee are expected to conduct preliminary inquiries into whether Senator John Ensign violated federal law or ethics rules as part of an effort to conceal an affair with the wife of an aide, current and former officials said Friday.

The inquiries will most likely examine whether Mr. Ensign, a Nevada Republican, or Douglas Hampton, his one-time administrative assistant, broke the law after Mr. Hampton, immediately upon leaving his Congressional job last year, began to lobby Mr. Ensign’s office. Mr. Hampton, as a senior aide, was subject to a one-year lobbying ban, lawyers who specialize in ethics law said.

How can we guarantee Senator Ensign’s vote on healthcare reform was genuine when he can’t even bother to follow one of the simplest ethics rules in the senate; DON’T WORK AS A LOBBYIST FOR AT LEAST A YEAR.

Politico reported, per a Nevada political insider “that Ensign began an affair with a staffer several months after he separated from his wife. When Ensign reconciled with his wife, the source said, he gave the aide a severance package and parted ways. Sometime later, the source said, Ensign met with the husband of the woman involved and had what this source described as a positive encounter. But the source said that the man subsequently asked Ensign for a substantial sum of money — at which point Ensign decided to make the affair public.”

Maybe he should try to get the secretary of treasury job?

Now if Ironic Johnny can catch the top three other Republican leaders with their hands in the honey pot we might become the minority loser after all.